Table 2.
Characteristics of 8,652 Spinal Fusion Admissions by Study Site
| Variable | Category | Overall n (%) |
Site 1 n (%) |
Site 2 n (%) |
Site 3 n (%) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Total N (% of overall population) | 8,652 (100) | 4,263 (49.3) | 1,589 (18.4) | 2,800 (32.4) | |
| Patient factors | |||||
| Female sex | 4,717 (54.5) | 2,302 (54.0) | 849 (53.4) | 1,566 (55.9) | |
| Age, median (IQR) | 58 (49–67) | 57 (48–65) | 56 (47–66) | 60 (51–69) | |
| Racea | White | 7,271 (84.0) | 3,812 (89.4) | 1,243 (78.2) | 2,216 (79.1) |
| Black | 1,043 (12.1) | 354 (8.3) | 242 (15.2) | 447 (16.0) | |
| Other | 209 (2.4) | 66 (1.5) | 66 (4.2) | 77 (2.8) | |
| Payer | Private/VA | 4,576 (52.9) | 2,575 (60.4) | 904 (56.9) | 1,097 (39.2) |
| Dual Medicare/Medicaid | 191 (2.2) | 184 (4.3) | 7 (0.4) | 0 (0.0) | |
| Medicaid | 424 (4.9) | 163 (3.8) | 174 (11.0) | 87 (3.1) | |
| Medicare | 3,244 (37.5) | 1,277 (30.0) | 504 (31.7) | 1,463 (52.3) | |
| Self-pay/none | 217 (2.5) | 64 (1.5) | 0 (0.0) | 153 (5.5) | |
| Spinal trauma | 676 (7.8) | 417 (9.8) | 160 (10.1) | 99 (3.5) | |
| Cancer | 301 (3.5) | 181 (4.2) | 74 (4.7) | 46 (1.6) | |
| Operative factors | |||||
| Length of stay, median (IQR) | 4 (2–6) | 4 (2–6) | 4 (3–6) | 3 (3–5) | |
| Surgical approach | Anterior | 3,546 (41.0) | 1,635 (38.4) | 686 (43.2) | 1,225 (43.8) |
| Posterior | 4,266 (49.3) | 2,318 (54.4) | 893 (56.2) | 1,055 (37.7) | |
| Anterior and posterior | 840 (9.7) | 310 (7.3) | 10 (0.6) | 520 (18.6) | |
| Spinal levels operated upon | 1–2 levels | 5,958 (68.9) | 2,786 (65.4) | 1,374 (86.5) | 1,798 (64.2) |
| 3–7 levels | 2,174 (25.1) | 1,108 (26.0) | 213 (13.4) | 853 (30.5) | |
| ≥ 8 levels | 520 (6.0) | 369 (8.7) | 2 (0.1) | 149 (5.3) | |
| Spinal regionb | Cervical | 4,517 (52.2) | 2,408 (56.5) | 830 (52.2) | 1,279 (45.7) |
| Lumbar | 3,424 (39.6) | 1,421 (33.3) | 668 (42.0) | 1,335 (47.7) | |
| Thoracic | 1,324 (15.3) | 879 (20.6) | 95 (6.0) | 350 (12.5) | |
| Post-discharge prophylactic antibiotic use | 289 (3.3) | 93 (2.2) | 81 (5.1) | 115 (4.1) | |
Note. IQR, interquartile range; VA, Veterans Affairs.
a
129 (1.5%) admissions were missing race.
b
Categories were not mutually exclusive. 600 (6.9%) patients had >1 spinal region operated upon.